Traffic offences double but speeding fines fall

An increased focus on road rules by Transport for London (TFL) and local authorities in London could be hitting motorists’ pockets hard according to the latest figures from National Car Rental. A year on year analysis of traffic offence fines incurred by drivers of National’s vehicles has revealed a massive 96.8% increase, Q1 2007 vs Q1 2006.

National, which operates the UK’s largest car rental fleet and predominantly serves the business sector receives thousands of parking fines, congestion charge fines, speeding fines, bus lane fines and fines for traffic offences every month incurred by customers renting its vehicles.

Traffic offence fines are not the only area to see an increase in 2007. While fines for failing to pay the congestion charge decreased year on year by almost 10% in January and February 2007 versus the same months in 2006, in March 2007 the number of fines jumped by over 50% compared to February 2007 suggesting the extension of the charging zone on 19 th February caught a lot of drivers off guard.

However, more welcome news is that speeding fines have fallen year on year by 9% Q1 2007 vs Q1 2006. February saw the lowest number of speeding fines incurred by National customers since March 2003.

Ron Santiago, Vice President UK Operations for National said: “While we anticipated an increase in congestion charge fines from February to March 2007, the massive increase in traffic offences is a definite cause for concern.

“Traffic offence fines, which include using restricted routes, failing to stop at red lights or for a police car and dangerous driving may be on the increase as TFL, the biggest issuer of traffic offences has started to enforce the law in a larger area of London. Also, more London boroughs such as Southwark, Hackney and Ealing have started to clampdown hard on traffic offences and are also issuing these fines. This seems to have had a major impact on the number of fines we are receiving on behalf of drivers and only time will tell whether these heavier enforcements will prove a good deterrent.

“However, the positive news is the number of speeding fines received Q1 2007 vs Q1 2006 has decreased. This continues a trend we started to see in 2006 which we hope will continue.”